Wade Thomas Students Make Art from Garbage

Every year, each classroom in the Ross Valley School District does a class art project, organized by parent volunteers, and with the end results auctioned off online to help raise money for the YES Foundation.

This year, Mr. Engle and Ms. McKenna's two third-grade classes at created pictures of sea animals from plastic and garbage collected on the beach. Those pictures were photographed by Fairfax photographer and parent Terri Baker and are being sold as two sets of notecards with $740 raised so far -- and they haven't even hit the shelves of Whole Foods in San Rafael, which the cards will do later this month. 

Colleen Proppe (a Patch contributor) organized the art project for her son's class, taking inspiration from Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang of Forest Knolls. The Langs have been collecting plastic from off the beaches for over 12 years and currently have exhibits at SFMOMA and at the Cavallo Point Inn.

The students watched the film One Plastic Beach about the Langs' work and worked in teams to create their own images inspired by the sea and the problem of plastic pollution in our oceans. 

"The results are remarkably whimsical and colorful sea animals that reflect on the problem, but are fun and cheeful," said Proppe.

The notecards come in two sets -- one of five cards from Mr. Engle's class and one of four cards from Ms. McKenna's class. Seventy-four sets at $10 each have already been sold, with all the proceeds going to the YES Foundation, which funds arts, music, drama and physical education programs in the Ross Valley School District.

But, the students can certainly expect their garbage art to fly off the shelves when it goes on sale at Whole Foods in San Rafael later this month as part of the store's Creative Re-Use competition. Whole Foods will also be sponsoring a bus trip for the group out to Kehoe Beach in June with Judith Selby Lang and Richard Land, said Proppe. They will clean the beach and create a work of art from the plastic garbage they collect.

To buy the cards before they go on sale at Whole Foods, contact Proppe at colleen@marinarts.org.